HISTORY
The Right to Rest Act is the most contentious legislative initiative put forth by the Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign - founded by Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) members.
Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign
The Homeless Bill of Rights is a grassroots organizing campaign fighting to end the criminalization of poor and homeless people’s existence. The campaign strives to ensure that all people have the basic right to exist without fear of harassment and criminalization at the hands of the police.
The goals and priorities of the campaign come from the results of 1,000s of street outreach surveys to people in various cities being criminalized for sitting, lying, resting, sleeping and eating while poor and/or homeless.
This campaign is a way of working collectively with groups possessing different talents to address the many injustices that we face in our communities. We are building the power to create a social justice movement that will create a society where we can all thrive.
Right to Rest Campaign
The Right to Rest Act has been introduced into Oregon Legislature a total of three times, and was last introduced in the 2023 legislative season.
In 2021, Oregon’s R2R bill was killed after an unclear and unjust “hearing.” Given only SEVEN minutes to present testimony, only three people were given the opportunity to speak to the committee on record. Not to mention the inaccessibility of the legislative process, increasingly hindered by COVID precautions, that created unsurmountable barriers for unhoused residents to participate.
In 2023, despite our best efforts there were intentional delays that impacted our bill’s ability to make crucial deadlines to pass through the Oregon Legislature.